heART's in the mail!

Okay, my heart art is worn out! So much worry and planning over the heart swaps I participated in. As I mentioned before, I bought too much: heart punches, heart paper, heart doilies, heart boxes, heart wire-shaped heart tray, heart buttons, heart stickers, heart machine embroidery designs, and more heart supplies that I can't think of. Again, I probably already had most of the items I needed anyway, but the shopping hunt, of course, inspired me.

I received this sweet card from Jen for the ITTY BITTY VALENTINE SWAP. I love the tree branches with the little hearts floating away. So pretty. And see how she used the brads for decorations in the corner and the perfect, little bows. She told me those bows gave her a hard time, and that makes them all the more special because I'm a "perfect bow" nut and will work one again and again until it is just right.

Molly sent me this lovely embellished heart box for the SWEET HEART BOX SWAP. She filled it with yummy chocolate, cupcake holders, candles, and fingertip towels. I'm sorry to say that Camille and I were so excited about the contents, they were disbursed around the house before I remembered to take a picture, so I snagged these photos from Molly's page.

Here is the altered heart box I sent to Molly. It was so hard for me to think about what to do. I decided to rip papers up and decoupage them to the box lid, and then I chose one paper for around the box bottom. I had more ideas, but this was all I could do.

Filling it was easier, and you can check out what I put inside by clicking on the picture. Of course, I machine-embroidered a dishtowel for her. Why do I do that every time? Oh, yeah, because I can -- thank you, Grandy.

This is my send for the MY VINTAGE CHERRY HEART SWAP.

Now, I am risking showing these pictures because I don't know if the box arrived yet to its destination. I sent this set to Else in Norway. You know, it was easy to find the items to fill the heart-shaped tray quite affordably. HOWEVER, I probably doubled that by the postage! NOTE TO SELF: Next time don't choose a glass-lined, wired tray to send across the sea! On the other hand, Else tells me that V-Day supplies aren't as abundant in her area as they are here, so I'm hoping she will have fun using the cards and cupcake liners and such for her Valentine sweethearts. When Else's comes my way, I'll be anxious to see what she sends from her Norway.

If you head over to the mishflicks and click on the Swap Set off to the right, you can see more views of everything sent and received.

Thanks to the ladies to hosted these swaps, as I can tell that is a big job.

MaryAnn hosted the ITTY BITTY VALENTINE.

Maria hosted the SWEET HEART BOX SWAP.

Dolly hosted the MY VINTAGE CHERRY HEART.

It looks fun and creative, but I think in the end, it is just hard work keeping up with everyone and making sure everyone is as happy in their match as possible. You must have to love it to organize it. I'd better not even entertain the thought of hosting one of those. BUT, I have some really good ideas running around in my head . . . .